How Our Education System Forced A 16-Year-Old Swimming Champ To Commit Suicide Because Of Academic Pressure

When she was 8, she swam for 15 hours non-stop, covering a whopping 38 kms. By the time she was 16, she had already won several medals and honours at national championships for her school and state. She dreamt of becoming the world’s best swimmer. A few years from now, she could represent India as a swimmer in the Olympics. If only, our country’s obsession with grades didn’t stub her to death. If only!

This is the story of Saira Sirohi, the immensely talented and hard working swimmer from Ghaziabad, our country lost earlier this week. Sunday evening, Saira Sirohi drank a glass of milk and retired to her room. She played a game on her mobile phone for a while as her younger sister fell asleep next to her. Very early next morning, Saira’s father woke up to his younger daughter shrieking in her room. "At 1.30 am, my younger daughter started crying loudly. I thought someone had entered the house and rushed to their room. But I couldn't open the door easily though it had not been bolted from inside. When I managed to push it open, I found Saira had hanged herself from the grille above the door. I brought her down and put her on the bed but she was cold and stiff," Jaideep Sirohi, Saira’s father recalled. Saira had hung herself to death. She took her own life because she was afraid she’d fail her exams in school. "I felt thirsty in the middle of the night and woke up. That's when I found Saira hanging against the door. I began shouting for my father and mother. She had shown no sign of being under stress and had chatted freely with my aunt who visited our house last night," Saira’s 11-year-old sister recalled.

At just 16 years of age, Saira Sirohi was an over achiever. She was more successful and more importantly, more skilled than most other kids her age. She was the kid every parent would wish for. And yet, she wasn’t good enough as per the Indian education system. Of course, her exceptional talent and consistent hard work didn’t stand a chance in front of the Indian education system. Of course, the ‘unit tests’ were more important than her dream to represent India in the Olympics.

"She had been telling me she won't come for training for more than a month because she was afraid her school would fail her in her exams. She said if she failed, she would be rusticated. She had appeared in three papers which she had missed owing to her championships. She was scheduled to appear in the fourth paper on Monday.” Her coach Raju Chaudhry recalled.

Saira is just one example. There are a lot of other kids in our country who die every day trying to cope with academic pressure, so many artists hiding behind numbers and symbols, countless athletes chasing a dream that’s not even theirs. How many more Sairas will it take for India to realize that not every child is the same, not everyone of us have the same skills, not everyone of us want to be mathematicians and scientists, that our marks do not determine our worth? Do we really want to raise the next generation in a world where they’d rather die than follow their dreams? Saira’s death is our cross to bear, India.